His #1 goal in life is to be helpful, so he doesn’t shy away from household chores. His favorites: “taking out the trash” and “getting the mail”.

When it’s time to “take out the trash (signaled by the fact that we’re changing the trash bag liner in the kitchen garbage pail), he knows that he gets to carry one item to the big garbage pail we keep in the garage. Then, sits waiting for me to put his leash on so he can simply walk the trash can to the curb with me and return immediately without dilly-dallying. (He hasn’t been taught to put things in the trash can yet.)

When it’s time to “get the mail“, he makes a mad dash for the mailbox at the curb… then he sits and waits patiently for Jim to hand him a piece of mail… then proudly trots back into the house to give me the day’s mail.

In puppy training class, we taught Destin the meaning of “touch” (to tap our open palm lightly with his nose). This is supposed to be useful in teaching him to use his nose to nudge open a door on his own, to turn on a light, to signal us in an emergency, etc. Whether we’ll ever need such a command has yet to be determined, but he’s definitely got “touch” down!

He gives you his “toes” on command. This is actually the same as “high five”, “shake hands” or “give me your paw”. It’s a dog trick that comes in handy when wiping wet/muddy paws and trimming toenails.

He’s not a chewer, but whenever we’re not home, he’s bound & determined to let you know when you’ve left something within his reach! Whether it’s a candy wrapper, a piece of notebook paper, or a kleenex (his favorite)… he’ll drag it to the hallway so it’s the first thing we see when we arrive back home. Sometimes, this is useful… like when he brings us the remote control!

Whatever is in his mouth (a toy, a piece of food, or something he shouldn’t have in his mouth), Destin will “drop it” on command (…without too much drool, and no chew marks).

Best Dog Tricks That Jersey Does:

He’s been praying for years. (Of course, he became a Christian long before Destin did.)

He can oh-so-delicately crack peanut shells open just to get to the peanut inside.

Whenever we can’t find the remote to the TV, just say “where’s the TV?” to Jersey and he’ll search high and low for the remote control and ultimately bring it to you gripped softly in this mouth. Jersey taught Destin everything he knows about finding the remote control and bringing it to us on command.

He wouldn’t think of chewing on anything… not even a sock left lying on the floor. In fact, if he ever finds something lying around that he knows isn’t normally there, he’ll pick it up softly in his mouth and bring it right to you — as if to inform you that you’ve left this behind. (In fact, we’ve been quite lucky… None of our dogs has ever been inclined to chew on things left lying around.)

Best Dog Tricks That Tenor Does:

None of our dogs have ever been chewers (thank goodness!), but Tenor was the one that showed some early tendencies toward chewing. All it took was a couple of “NO!” sessions with him surrounded by some of our favorite things: shoes, socks, hair combs, kleenex, etc.

Tenor has probably been our easiest dog to teach fun new tricks to (and in the least amount of training sessions). One of the sweetest is his ability to sing on cue. Can your dog sing?

Dog Tricks We Wish We Had Taught Our Dogs

Destin: To lick his lips to clean up his drool after a lengthy slurp from the water bowl. His flappy lips resemble those of a Saint Bernard… and they hold a lot of water! (UPDATE: We eventually taught our youngest dog, Tenor to lick his lips on command to prevent drool from being spewed all over the house!)

Jersey: To tone down that yippy bark. It’s higher-pitched then most dogs’ bark. It can be rather annoying at times. (UPDATE: We found the right combination of tips and taught Tenor to stop barking at strangers.)

Destin and Jersey: To only get on the bed when we want you on the bed. They’ve done great to remain off all the other furniture in the house, but not our bed. And despite its King size, there’s just not enough room! (UPDATE: We finally achieved this! Now our dogs rest their chins on the mattress and wait until we say “okay” before they jump up on the bed.)

Destin, Jersey and Tenor: To pick up things on the floor, on command. To date, we’ve only done this with a couple of specific items. I would like to reproduce this trick to apply to many more items. (UPDATE: It took a lot of time and patience, be we finally taught Tenor to pick up just about anything we point to, on command.)

I like to help people find unique ways to do things in order to save time & money -- so I frequently write about "outside the box" ideas that most wouldn't think of. As a lifelong dog owner, I often share my best tips for living with and training dogs. I worked in Higher Ed several years until switching gears to pursue things I was more passionate about. I've worked at a vet, in a photo lab, and at a zoo -- to name a few. I enjoy the outdoors via bicycle, motorcycle, Jeep, or RV. You can always find me at the corner of Good News & Fun Times as publisher of The Fun Times Guide (32 fun & helpful websites).

I’m glad to find this site. My dog is a border collie mix, and it doesn’t take him long to learn new tricks, I just need more ideas for tricks to teach him. One fun trick/game that we play is my niece will hide somewhere and I will say “find Maura” and the dog will run around searching for her until he finds her. Turn around in a circle, was another trick that was really easy for him to learn. He’s still working on the treat on the nose, and only catches it sometimes.

JLL24

I taught my dog to crawl by running my hand with a treat on the ground in front of him (when he’s laying down) very slowly to start and saying “crawl” repeatedly.

blue heeler momma

hey! if you want to teach your dog to crawl i know a way thats fast and easy… my dog learned it in five minutes and we were only playing around. at first they wont crawl too far but they will eventually…since your dog already knows how to lay down, and how to stay…have your dog lay down and stay, and then walk about five or so feet away and sit on the floor facing him/her then tap the floor (to a dog this usually means come) but at the same time, make sure to remind him/her to “Stay down!” they will get the hang of it quickly, especially if you have their favorite treat, and its always an impressive one.

Kristene Thompson

My Min Pin is so smart it is unreal. He understands everything I say even if I think its something I have never said before. Every trick I have taught him he learns in minutes flat. Longest and hardest one was to teach him to speak. I had another dog there and kept telling him to speak and giving him a treat. I was doing this pretty quickly. I would then say speak to my dog and when the other dog would speak I would give him the treat. my dog was a little confused at first but in a few minutes he got it and he did speak and got the treat too. He can sit, sit pretty, shake paws, and he can either right shake using his right paw or left shake on command, anda also knows these directions when we are out on a bike run. He can wave, he can pound it out, he can stay, wait, listen, go see, come see, dance, roll over…although he doesn’t like this one so much but will do it no problem if I want him to do something else he doesn’t want to do then he can roll over beautifully. He can crack open a shelled peanut and get the whole shell out, he can “find” what ever I need him too pertaining to other pets or animals..including my room mates snake that got loose. He took me outside, downstairs, around the property and then next door to the park and the tree the little snake and escaped too!! He knows go upstairs, stop, drop it, run, kisses, and the best hugs too. In the past when we lived at moms and she loved giving him treats at specific times of the day IE when they returned from dropping me off at work and then again when I returned…he knew what time it was and would go let her know. When he wants or needs something he comes to me to let me know. I go through the list of possibilities and and he does not respond until I say the thing he wants…..eat dinner, go outside, sit on the porch, a treat, and do you want puppy kisses or do you want to play. he sits there looking up at me with wide eyes and then barks when I say the right thing. He is awesome and my best buddy!!!